Crisis Management: Damage Control & Corporate Communication | 危机管理

This program is designed for General Managers, Director of Communications and Public Relations and those responsible for managing media and customer relations.

At the end of the Program, your Consultants should be able to:

- Understand the nature of corporate communication and crisis management
- Analyze current and future threats to the company’s brand message
- Work with the company’s damage control team to minimize damage and control risk.
- Stay ‘on message´when dealing with the media, interested parties and customers.
- Deliver a humane, compassionate message that is sincere but still protects the
company.
- Handle emotionally-charged interaction with media and individuals
- Craft responses that conform with the company’s policy and official response
- Monitor the ongoing crisis and gauge media and public reaction

Introduction: This Unit introduces the concept of Public Relations and Crisis Management/Damage Control. Participants will learn the basics of corporate communication, international PR and effective Crisis Management/Damage Control.

Why Does PR Matter? This Unit discusses the importance of Public Relations. Everyone knows what advertising is, but the role of PR is much less clear. For large multinationals, public relations is strongly tied to the power of the brand message. This module will clarify the role and power of PR in relations to the company’s effectiveness and success.

Principle of Full Disclosure. This Unit tackles the difficult concept of “Full Disclosure." All corporate managers are uncomfortable revealing potentially bad or embarrassing news to outsiders but in China it is considered the worst thing a manager can do. Effective Damage Control requires a high degree of disclosure and honesty. We will explore the reasons for this, the limits of disclosure and international best practices for dealing with the disclosure of bad news.

Who is In-Charge? The company must present a unified front to the media and to the public. This unit explores the “Damage Control Team concept, and teaches the participants to monitor the situation, develop an optimal message and deliver it with sincerity, clarity, and authority.

Developing the Message. This Unit follows the previous one quite closely, and helps participants develop a focused message that will guide the company through the crisis.

Getting the Message Out. This Unit emphasizes how a well prepared damage-control team works to get its message out to the world. We will look at two distinct categories of media: formal/traditional media (such as newspapers and TV news) and informal/interactive media (blogs, bbs, and consumer groups).

Follow-up and Brand Therapy. This Unit examines what happens AFTER the problem seems to be solved. But once a crisis seems to have settled down, we have to make sure that it doesn’t come back even stronger a second time. The public will forgive once but will feel betrayed and angry if the situation repeats itself.

Best Practices for Corporate Communication.Preparation is the best defense against corporate crisis. We will discuss “best practices for avoiding or minimizing future brand or image problems, and learn to streamline our corporate image.

Conclusion: Famous Cases.This section will review the concepts of corporate damage control by reviewing famous successes and failure in damage control.

Andrew has spent the past four (4) years as a management consultant and trainer in Shanghai, providing effective sales and business development programs to multinational companies. His Value Added Sales (VAS) techniques which help companies meet their sales targets and manage opportunities, are a comprehensive suite of workshops and tools that can be adopted by the organization within three to six months.

Andrew also regularly lectures on sales, marketing, management and finance topics at various Shanghai business schools and is a regular lecture on the MBA Program at the University of Strathclyde in Shanghai. He first came to Asia in 1990 after receiving his MBA in International Finance from New York University Stern School of Management. He gained extensive senior sales and management experience with leading financial institutions in Taipei, Hong Kong, Kyoto and New York before he set up full time as independent consultant and trainer in Shanghai.

Andrew publishes several websites and weblogs concerned with sales, HR and sales management in China. DiligenceChina.com focuses on issues of due diligence and negotiation in China and is intended fro investors and business people entering or expanding their presence in the China market. ChinaSolved.com addresses management issues for international managers already engaged in running a China-based operation. Finally, BestPracticesChina.com helps Chinese and foreign professionals become more successful in international marketing.